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Memories

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Walt

weepnotformeOn September 25, 2008, after just a couple days of trying to get used to the news that our cat Christy had leukemia and wasn’t long for this world, I got that horrible call that she was gone.

And in certain, subtle (and not so subtle) ways, that loss changed my life, changed me.

But I observe this day, recognizing that it’s been four years: somehow–I’m not entirely sure how–four years have gone by without this kitty.

Life goes on, even though I find myself with tears at the back of my eyes as I write this. Life goes on, and I remember her.

13 years we had with her–watching her grow from rambunctious kitten (my favorite memories of her kitten-months were a time she flopped down to play with Kayla (our other, older cat)’s tail–Kayla never liked her tail played with, especially not this interloping kitten) and another time seeing a little black-and-white blur race by flying at a recliner and watching it spin–seeing the kitten hanging from the back.

We got her as my sister’s kitten–my sister picked her, named her (Christy Michelle), but she grew on the whole family…she WAS family.

She’s missed as any member of the family.

Real life. Not some comic book, not some dumb story that turns out to be a dream at the end or some other cliché.

weepnotforme

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Officially on the Valiant Journey

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Walt

valianttpbsI suppose it was official when I bought runs of Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, and Ninjak a couple weeks ago…but I think some part of me at that point was still thinking “just these series and maybe a couple more.”

BUT, with a deal at the local comic shop and a Fill-a-Longbox Sale at another nearby shop, I’ve jumped fully in: I want to track down a full reading copy of the Valiant Universe from the 1990s. I’ll settle for reprints/collected volumes if needbe–In 20+ years I’ve managed to never pay more than $10 before tax on any single comic issue…and I’d prefer to keep to that. Especially since I want to READ all the stories.

I feel like I’ve already learned a great deal about Valiant just in the past few days–both in-continuity stuff (Rai #0 in particular) as well as the comics themselves (thanks to listening to old episodes of a podcast: Only the Valiant).

While it would be interesting to try to chronicle my Valiant reading issue by issue (like my recent review treatment of Bloodshot #0 last week), I think that’d be folly–and I’d almost certainly “burn out” on it. So instead, I’ll probably just post here and there with random thoughts about the Valiant reading, and the occasional “coverage” of what I’ve been reading.

To that end, on the current journey thus far, I’ve read:

– Bloodshot #0
– Bloodshot #1
– Bloodshot #2
– Rai #0 (in the Rai TPB)

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Digital Books: Availability and Attitude

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Walt

nooklibraryOver the past 10-11 months, I’ve become a definite digital convert. There was a time not too long ago where I couldn’t even begin to grasp the concept of buying or READING books digitally. I’m too much a fan of having the actual books, I thought. But after lugging around Stephen King‘s 11/22/63 for a couple weeks last year, after having done so with last year’s new Grisham book, and the trouble I had in acquiring the first Walking Dead novel, and so on, I’ve come to see benefits to ebooks…both on an actual ereader (I have a first generation Nook I bought used) as well as my phone (primarily the Nook app for iPhone).

For one thing, the ereader and/or phone are a fixed size, shape, weight. 200 pages or 1,000–size/shape/weight remain the same. The phone fits in my pocket, and I carry it with me pretty much everywhere anyway, so being able to have entire books on it is just bonus–and it’s so much easier to not have to haul a book around and remember to bring it with me and all that.

nookEqually important is availability, which has been the other selling point for me. Rather than having to run around to a bunch of stores looking for the book, all I have to do is go online and buy the book, and I’ve got access to it, full-text, virtually immediately. No paying extra for shipping, no waiting for shipping; no using gas to go to a physical store hoping they have it. It makes buying the reading experience–the text of the book–simple and convenient.

Or at least, if the book I’m interested in is available as an ebook.

The factor that really, until a few days ago, hadn’t exactly come into play for me.

astonishingxmenThere’s a new book out just in the last week or two–a prose novelization of The Astonishing X-Men: Gifted; the novelization is written by Peter David, no stranger to X-books. Not too long ago, I impulse-bought the novelization of Marvel’s Civil War, and quite enjoyed it; I was even excited at getting to read it while saving significantly from the $25 price point of the awkward squarish-dimensions of the print edition.

So I was quite surprised this past weekend when I resolved to buy this book to discover there’s no ebook counterpart. Not for the Nook, not for the Kindle…it’s hardcover in-print or nothing. Which is extremely disappointing.

This is not a book I’m prepared to buy in print, at least not first-run at full price; and there are so many graphic novels I’m after that I can’t see buying this instead at full price, nor having yet more shelfspace taken up by it. And this has stopped me dead in my tracks, as far as praising the digital format. I’m not interested in most of the ebook content out there, and it seems like week after week more new digital content (books and otherwise) get shoved at me, but now when I have a specific book in mind that I want to buy and read digitally…no one has it available.

brotherswarTrying to move past the disappointment and frustration, I decided today to look for The Brothers’ War by Jeff Grubb. I have the old mass-market paperback edition from 1998/1999 that I’ve read a couple times, but I want to re-read it. Though I would very much prefer NOT to have to re-read it as a MMPB, further cracking the spine, and having to wrestle the book to keep it open, constantly one hand firmly grasping it (if not both) to just read it.

But…there are maybe a dozen Magic: The Gathering books in ebook format, and it doesn’t look like ANY of the ones I’d be interested in (basically, the Artifacts, Ice Age, Masquerade, and Invasion Cycle-era books) are available digitally. I don’t know that I’d re-buy every book, re-read the ENTIRE series…but as I’m re-reading old MTG comics for a weekly piece I’m writing for a friend’s blog (Fantasy Rantz), I’m finding myself once again interested in the earlier MTG stories, including The Brothers’ War and possibly the rest of the Artifacts Cycle and maybe Invasion Cycle.

With none of these available and my aversion to their print editions for the moment…I’ve got some digital comics already on this phone, plenty of physical comics, and generally don’t NEED to buy any of these right now. Especially with another Walking Dead novel and the new Grisham book both coming next month, and I still have most of book 4 and all of book 5 of the Song of Ice and Fire series to get through…

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The Intentional Valiant Haul

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Walt

A couple weeks ago, I found quite a few Valiant comics as I rooted out my various X-Men comics and searched out a couple Magic: The Gathering issues.

I thought it was rather cool that I had a bit of a start on a couple Valiant titles.

Last week, I took advantage of a sale my local comic shop had going, and wound up buying significant runs of Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, Ninjak, and the 2nd series each for X-O and Ninjak…the majority of the issues for 90%-off sticker price.

The floodgate’s been opened…I could probably keep busy in 2013 reading and acquiring nothing but 1990s Valiant and 1990s X-titles.

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Last Friday’s Star Trek Google Doodle

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Walt

I didn’t think anything would beat the playable Pac Man Google Doodle awhile back, but this sure came darned close!

I was amused enough simply at seeing the letters dressed as Star Trek characters…but I was enthralled when I realized you could PLAY.

01

If you clicked on ‘o’ it zoomed in to spotlight her:

02

And if you clicked on the computer it lit up and made familiar Star Trek-y-computer sounds. Then click the doors to the right and you go into the Transporter Room:

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And when you clicked on the bin in the upper left…Tribbles come pouring out!

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Since that made things a little bit crowded, click on the Transporter computer at the right:

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…and e and o are transported to fight a Gorn:

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You could bean the Gorn with the rock, the branch, and the classic weapon of last resort. With the Gorn defeated, you’d return to the bridge, and then see the view of Space to the sound of the classic theme:

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And thus an episode ended, with the Enterprise continuing on her journey.

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…and then it would pull up a search results page on Star Trek The Original Series. Someday, I’ll watch the series in full, perhaps. Someday.

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Collection Maintenance II: Another Haul, Another Step

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Walt

20120906elderdragonsI had two particularly great “finds” tonight going back through my collection. First, I actually managed to find the two-issue Elder Dragons mini-series that in large part prompted this week’s digging. I knew the covers looked familiar, seeing images online, as something I had physically handled at some point.

And sure enough, in the middle of one of the longboxes, I found ’em.

I also found a set (minus #12) of Solar: Man of the Atom #s 1-25 that I’d bought a couple years ago for about $6. Track down a handful of issues, and that pretty much gives me 20+ issues of X-O Manowar, Archer & Armstrong, and Solar. Plus a few other issues here ‘n there.

I also found some more Ultraverse issues, which between last night and tonight fills in 3-4 issues of what I’ve been missing.

Time-wise, I’m left with a couple other longboxes to dig out that I somehow managed to REALLY bury and neglect as I moved these others–so they’ll be a weekend or next-week project.

Next up will be sorting through what amounts to 4 1/2 longboxes of X-books to officially determine what my X-collection looks like, and purge duplicates.

20120906valiant01

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Collection Maintenance and the Unintentional Valiant Haul

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Walt

ziggyonxmenboxesAfter years of intentions, this year I’ve finally started to–at least in small steps–do some maintenance on my comics collection.

I’ve been getting comics for 23+ years now, and aside from giving away some duplicates and occasionally buying comics intended for friends, my collection’s simply grown. Compound that with having the oldest chunk of my collection at my parents’ house while I’ve lugged the last decade’s worth of comics around with me 20120904valiant01(and some absolutely incredible sales at the local comic shop and a full longbox purchase at a Free Comic Day sale a few years ago) and my collection is nothing remotely approaching ordered.

Last year I sped through several of my boxes to pull what Ultraverse comics I could find, and pretty much assembled a “what’s missing” list that I’ve sorely neglected for about a year now.

20120904ultraverseThe last several months I’ve been gathering my X-Men comics together, with thoughts toward a major reading project. Having scoured the old boxes at my parents’, and weeks later transporting the boxes of X-Men stuff to my apartment, I’ve finally begun going through the most recent of my longboxes, and found a great many of the X-Men comics I knew I had–including sizeable runs of X-Force, Cable, and Wolverine.

But I also found that–like I discovered when I pulled Ultraverse comics last year–that I’d been snapping up lots of Valiant comics from various bargain-bins.20120904valiant02

I’ve been referencing all these “classic” Valiant series that I’ve never read as I’ve reviewed the “New” Valiant stuff this summer…and come to discover (and I still have more than a dozen longboxes to sort through) that I have a pretty good stack of Valiant stuff–primarily Archer & Armstrong and X-O Manowar, as well as a couple early runs of Turok and H.A.R.D. Corps.

20120904valiant04And…there’s X-O Manowar #0. Turns out the thing’s apparently been one of my favorite bargain-bin pulls, as I know of a couple other copies I’ve snagged this year, and I found 2-3 other copies going through stuff tonight–though apparently I neglected to pull them, not realizing I was going to find so many other Valiant comics to justify pulling those together.

It’s amazing the way time flies when one takes such a trip down memory lane…and how hard it is to flip through a longbox of comics without stopping to page through the odd issue here or there, and wish there was more time in the days, to just sit and read everything.

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TMNT at Walmart and Target (2012)

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Walt

After seeing bare-bones presence of the new TMNT toys at Target, they seem to have finally joined the ranks of the “regularly stocked,” as I’ve now seen these multi-peg displays at 5 or 6 different Targets.

I still don’t care for the “sound FX” figures, and would actually be sorta interested in the “TMNT Classics” line (at least for Leonardo).

The photo below was taken at the Target in Willoughby, OH:

tmntattargetwilloughby01

I was actually fairly surprised when I saw the following in the Eastlake Walmart recently. Though “late” to the party, that Walmart had a better stock of figures than most of the Targets I’ve seen–though not all visible here, all 9 unique “basic” figures were on these pegs.

tmntatwalmarteastlake01

At the “Super” Walmart in Brimfield, OH, the aisle tag isn’t quite appropriately placed, but it caught my attention, so served its purpose. I was beginning to REALLY doubt Walmart’s support of these new TMNT toys, but I guess I didn’t need to.

tmntatwalmartbrimfield01

And I’m not quite sure what to make of these bare pegs…the “display” looks pretty shoddy and bare…but that’s hopefully because the things are actually selling.

I’ve often had an “issue” with toy lines for their “peg warmers,” and it does seem like the turtles themselves are filling that role so far: it’s Shredder, the Kraang, the Foot Soldier, and April O’Neil that seem relatively rare–and even Splinter.

tmntatwalmartbrimfield02

The ancillary stuff–the role play kits, the talking/FX turtles, and the vehicles seem pretty common–for what little attention I’ve paid. Continue reading →

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True Fresh Starts vs. Mere Rebooting of Numbering

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Walt

archerandarmstrong001New #1s may work. In a way, they’ve worked quite well on me in the past year. If I recall off the top of my head, I bought around 30 of ’em last September/October with DC‘s New 52 initiative. Of course, I didn’t stick around very long on any of the titles, topping out around 8-9 issues of Animal Man and Swamp Thing. While I’ve largely kept up with Batwing, that’s been always a month behind for the “discount” on the digital, and I suppose another exception would be following up from Batman with a couple digital issues closing out the Night of Owls stuff.

extermination001cBut this summer, I’ve found myself fairly invested in and enjoying 7 new titles from #1, as well as the just-past-the-one-year-mark Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title from IDW.

Despite the $3.99 pricing, I’ve made exceptions for these for being non-Marvel/non-DC mainstream books.

And they’re all either completely new, original properties, or PROPERLY-done relaunches/reboots.

The Boom! titles (Higher Earth, Extermination, and The Hypernaturals) bloodshot001are all brand-new original properties that I’ve gotten in with on the “ground floor” from #1 (or the FCBD) issues, and thus far am following them with the new release of each single issue. As new properties, obviously these are fine being in the low numbers. They’re not mere continuations of existing continuity or new iterations of otherwise identical titles (and sometimes creative teams).

And then with the Valiant books (Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot, Harbinger, and XO Manowar), the original titles have been gone more than 12 years, and the current company is ITSELF a whole new iteration, sharing only name and teenagemutantninjaturtlesidw001properties with the original Valiant. And since they’re not picking up with where the original Valiant properties left off in the late-1990s, it only makes sense to start fresh, with both new #1s and new continuity.

Even TMNT is forging a whole new universe from any of the prior-existing universes, and I’m enjoying the plethora of stuff that IDW‘s been pumping out there. With a year or two between the end of the “Volume Four” series by original TMNT co-creator Peter Laird and draining the last of the done-in-advance queue of work on the higherearth001aTales of the TMNT title, a whole new company in control of the characters, a new license…it makes sense there’d be a new #1, and new “history” for the characters.

It just does not sit well with me the constant renumbering that Marvel–in particular–does; such that it’s actually in itself on principle turned me off to everything post-AvX (and got me to drop all the tie-in AvX titles). DC has at least had the “guts” to hold to the new numbering, keeping the books on schedule, and giving in and having various “waves” of books–cycling titles OUT that aren’t working and xomanowar001cycling in new ones, such that there’s beginning to be a hint of numerical diversity rather than “everything” being the same number each month.

But having come through the 1990s and the 2000s, having followed many characters for nearly two decades, the new stuff just isn’t (as a whole/in general) sitting well with me, and I’m even more put off by the pricing. I’ve bought DC and Marvel since their output was $.75 to $1, and as the prices have crept (and LEAPT!!!) upward…it’s just so hard to “justify” $3.99 (even $2.99) on titles/characters I hypernaturals001aremember paying only $1.50 to $2.25 or even the more recent $2.50 for.

With the Boom and Valiant stuff…it’s starting at $3.99, and broken record though I am, I’m just somehow more “able” to accept the higher price for stuff that’s rooted in the present, with today’s prices, rather than paying today’s prices for yesterday’s properties.

I also don’t have lengthy backstory to try to catch up on at high prices or out of print collected volumes to justify paying high premiums for. harbinger001And rather than be told that continuity doesn’t matter because of the sheer volume of continuity…these are all young enough titles that the “continuity” isn’t even an issue yet any more than it would be for ANY self-contained story.

After 23 years of keeping up with comics, it’s sort of sad to realize that of the ongoing titles I’m keeping up with, I’m looking to bail on the only title in triple digits (The Walking Dead) in favor of the collected volumes, which leaves the highest-numbered issue to the TMNT at #13 (last week).

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TMNT Action Figures 2012: Out of Their Shells

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Walt

…and here are the TMNT 2012 figures, out of their packaging!

Raphael, April O’Neil, Donatello, Michelangelo, Splinter, and Leonardo:

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Shredder with Foot Soldiers:

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TMNT vs. Shredder and the Foot:

photo(TMNTvsFoot)

The Kraang:

photo(Kraang)

And just cuz I could, 2003 TMNT side-by-side with 2012 TMNT:

2003and2012TMNT

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